


Staying Warm in Alaska

by SusieWhisperer



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-25
Updated: 2013-11-25
Packaged: 2018-01-02 14:25:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1057835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SusieWhisperer/pseuds/SusieWhisperer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Catelyn Tully is a young professional who recently moved to Alaska and has no romance in her life. When her coworker sets her up on a blind date with Ned Stark, Catelyn's love life starts to change.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Staying Warm in Alaska

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own anything related to A Song of Ice and Fire. 
> 
> This story is dedicated to my wonderful roommate who supports my writing even if it is “sock-based.”

She was a professional woman playing a man’s game. Her dark auburn hair was always tightly pulled back, giving her face a stretched look, and she never dressed down on casual Friday. Her snappy, though intelligent, remarks led to a professed disdain from many of her colleagues who found it easier to remind her of her gender than to admit to their own ignorance. But luckily, due to her unique “talent” (“It’s not a talent, I just remember what I read easily!”) she was an invaluable member of the office, and even her superiors had some hidden respect for her.

She lived alone and ate alone. Occasionally she would take herself out to dinner and she went to the movies most Sundays. She had a circle of acquaintances but her friends were all back in Mississippi, resenting the important career choice she was determined to follow.

Except for a high school boyfriend who had broken off with her the day after she froze up when he tried to dry hump her behind the basketball court; only one instance of romantic importance had occurred in Cat’s relatively uneventful life. Two years ago she had gone on a sloppy blind date that ended in a wine-drunk kiss and a morning after text that he “wasn’t looking for anything serious at the moment.” She would have forgotten the embarrassment more easily had her date’s brother, Ned, not been working in her office, two doors down. She didn’t have to interact with him, but ever since her date with his unpleasant brother, Brandon, she would find herself comparing the two. She inevitably found Ned the more attractive, the more intelligent, the happier. Her interest in the differences between the brothers soon developed into a fully developed infatuation for Ned.

By her third year with the company, Cat had established a working friendship with Lena, one of the VPs. Lena was also a fierce female, and she commanded respect from all of her colleagues. Early in her tenure, Lena had developed a sort of popularity among the young unmarried analysts because she turned a blind eye to the numerous workplace relationships that were supposedly prohibited. Cat was surprised to see that not only did Lena ignore what was going on, she in fact seemed to condone it. On an autumn Friday afternoon, Cat and Lena took a long lunch together and Lena had the chance to jokingly explain. Prior to joining the company, Lena had been in a relationship with one of the consultants. When Lena was offered a job within the company, she was loath to abandon the relationship though certainly not willing to give up the chance to boost her career, so she kept both. Her interest in maintaining relationships among coworkers sprang less from a desire to not be a hypocrite and more from a desire to have an army of analysts in her defense in case her own relationship was brought to the attention of her superiors. Cat expressed a fair amount of interest in Lena’s romantic intrigue, so Lena decided to push Cat for details regarding her own sex life. When it became apparent that Cat had made it through college and three years of the professional world without so much as making it to second base, Lena decided it was time for action.

“I know lots of nice guys, I should have been working on this from the start!” Lena was beaming.

Cat didn’t know how to decline.

“I’ll set you up!”

Cat promptly refused. “I’m done with – that already didn’t – that was awful. No more blind dates. Awful. No more.”   

Lena dropped the topic, but two weeks later, Cat found a memo paper stuck to her keyboard.

 

_Tomorrow (Saturday), 7:30pm, Rivers Edge Restaurant. Don’t you dare stand him up._

 

Before lunch, Lena poked her head in. “You got my memo?” Cat swiveled her chair around and started, “I’m not-”

“Good. Don’t be rude. Just give your name to the hostess and she’ll seat you with him.” Lena left the doorway and then and then poked her head back in “I think you’ll like him.” With a grin, she sauntered back to her own office.

Cat’s plan was to wake up early Saturday morning and call Lena with some sort of excuse, and then Lena would have the burden of passing the message on. But when Cat did wake up (not as early as she’d hoped) on Saturday, she realized she was actually curious and decided to give the blind date experiment one more go. Lord knows she wasn’t meeting guys any other way.

Cat finished some work, skyped with a friend from back home, and around 6:30, she hopped in the shower.  She dried her hair, and then wrapped in her robe, she stood in her bedroom deciding what to wear. Most of her favorite clothes were too light for an Alaskan winter. She had sundresses, rayon skirts, cotton blouses. The heavy clothes she had bought were bulky and dark. She wanted to feel sexy. She wanted to feel sexy even if the guy didn’t find her sexy. So she slipped into her only thong, then some pantyhose, and a wool skirt and blue blouse, which she then put a grey sweater over. She put on a touch of light makeup, then sat down on her bed. She stayed that way for a few minutes. Just breathing. Then she got up, slid into her boots, and walked outside. She made it to her car, then turned around came back inside, took off her boots, went into her bedroom, and took of the pantyhose. Over her thong, she put a pair of long underwear, and then leggings. Back into the boots, back outside, into the car and away she went.

She hadn’t ever been to Rivers Edge Restaurant, but she appreciated Lena’s gesture. It was a whitewashed wood building that looked a bit like a house but too large. She was a few minutes early, so she stood for a few minutes in the parking lot shivering, trying to identify cars. When she went inside, she did as Lena had told her – gave her name to the hostess who blandly said, “Come right ahead,” and the hostess weaved towards the back by the large bay window facing the river. Cat stopped before she got to the table, the hostess getting ahead. Ned was sitting at a table in the corner, looking out of the windows. The hostess turned around, Ned looked up, and Cat found herself stared at by two pairs of eyes. She hurried over.

“Thanks,” she murmured to the hostess, and then to Ned, “Hi.”

“Hi,” he smiled.

“I wasn’t expecting…”

He frowned. “What?”

“I wasn’t expecting – I wasn’t expecting someone from the office!”

Ned knitted his eyebrows, “You didn’t ask to meet with me?”

Cat didn’t know what to say.

Ned nodded, “I see. I’m really sorry. I guess it was a miscommunication.”

Cat said simply, “What?”

Ed spoke slowly, “I guess this was Lena’s idea of a joke. She said…she said…”

“Yes?”

“She said you wanted to meet me but were too shy to ask yourself.”

“Oh.” Cat didn’t know how to respond.

“Well, sit down and have dinner anyway, I’ll pay. No point in leaving now.”

“But I did.”

“What?” Ned said, confused.

“But I did want to meet with you and I was too shy, but I didn’t tell Lena that.”

“What? What?” Ed looked confused.

“I…shit. Oh shit. I mean, I didn’t want to say that. I didn’t mean to say that. I…fuck.” Cat was turning red.

Ned started to grin, “Have a seat.”

She didn’t. “Did you…did you want to go out with me, too? If not, I think I’ll just go.” Cat was burning red.

Ned, “Your hair looks nice down.”

“Well?”

Ned, “Maybe I wanted go out with you, too. And maybe it took Lena to set us up.”

Cat, “Maybe?”

Ned, “Yes.”

Cat sat down. She stared at the menu. She didn’t read anything. Finally, she looked up. Ned was grinning at her.

“What?” Cat asked defensively.

“You’re beautiful.”

Cat looked back at the menu.

With a few glasses of wine and delicious food, the conversation started to warm up. They were chatting freely and Cat was giggling by the time the check came. Ned paid, and as they walked out, Ned held the door for her. When they stepped outside, Cat started to shiver.

“Come here,” Ned said, and he pulled her into him. She buried her face in his coat, and he wrapped his arms around her, enveloping her body. They stayed like that for a minute, and then Ned took Cat’s face and turned it up towards his. He kissed her gently. They pulled apart and looked at each other. Then he kissed her again. She pulled away and buried her face once more in his chest. He put his lips to her ear and said, “Come home with me.” He could feel her head nod, and he unwrapped her from his body and took her hand. They drove to his house and made it inside but didn’t have enough time to turn on the light before Cat had launched herself at Ned and they were passionately kissing. After some intense minutes, Ned pulled away and said, “Whoa…slow…there’s time.” Cat looked at him curiously and said, “You’re not like your brother.”

Ned laughed. “No,” he said smiling, “I’m not like my brother.” Then, “come with me.” He led her to his bedroom. He started to take off his hat and gloves, and she did the same. Then he breathed deeply and asked, “Do you want to…?”

She didn’t understand for a moment, and then did. “I…have no experience. I’ve never…” She let her sentence trail off.

Ned wasn’t smiling, “Neither have I. No opportunity. I…I’m not…me neither.”

“Oh.” Cat was a little surprised that he seemed as inexperienced as she.

Ned said quickly, “But I’d like to! That is…I’d like to with you.”

“Yes.”

“Yes?”

Cat started to steady her voice as she said, “I don’t have any experience. I’ve never done anything. And I wouldn’t on a first date. But I’m 25 and I may not get the chance again-”

 “You’ll get the chance again-”

Cat finished with, “And I really like you. So I might as well.”

“But do you _want_ to?” Ned asked.

Cat could hear the hope and desire in Ned’s voice and responded simply, “Yes.”

“I want you.”

They both took off their coats and then came towards each other. Cat started to pull of her sweater, but Ned joined in and there was a tangle before it finally came off. Cat led Ned take off his own sweater. He started to unbutton Cat’s shirt but stopped suddenly.

“Shit!”  Ned blurted.

“What?”

“Fucking shit. Fuck fuck fuck.”

“What?” Cat was growing more and more concerned, afraid she had done something wrong.

“I don’t have any condoms.”

Cat felt a rush of relief that she hadn’t done anything wrong, followed by a rush of frustration, “Fuck.”

Tentatively, Ned said, “There’s a convenience store five minutes away.”

“Let’s go.”

They put on their coats and boots (Cat didn’t bother to put her sweater back on), got in the car, and drove to the convenience store. They tried to look innocent walking into the store, but Ned looked ashamed, and Cat was periodically sniggering. They got to the aisle with the condoms, and Ned looked concernedly at the choices.

“What?” Cat asked.

“Um. I don’t. I don’t know what size to get.”

Cat just stared at him.

Ned grabbed “Trojan Ecstasy for Her” and hurried towards the counter. After a glowering look from the man at the sales counter, Ned and Cat jumped back in the car and sped home. They went back to the bedroom and immediately started undressing. Ned put the box of condoms on the bedside table and pulled Cat onto the bed. She was still wearing her blouse, half buttoned, and skirt and underwear. Ned was wearing an undershirt, pants, and his socks. He pulled off his socks, and they sat on the bed kissing each other. He fumbled with her blouse, and then unclasped her bra and started touching her breasts.

She gasped.

“What?” He said, startled.

“Your hands are cold.”

“Oh! Sorry!” He tried rubbing his hands together and then touching her again, but she said, “Stop! Just wait.”

She unbuckled his pants and yanked him to standing so she could pull them off. He grabbed at her skirt and tried to take it off, but it got caught on her leggings. So he reached his hands under her skirt and tried tugged at her leggings, which took him sometime to figure out there was another layer to pull off as well. Once her long underwear and leggings were off, he pulled down her skirt. He was surprised to find her wearing a thong, and turned on, he lowered himself onto his knees and tried to pull it off with his teeth, but he accidentally bit her. She pushed him away, took her thong off by herself, and then grabbed his shirt, and it, too, came off. They were both naked now, and he was on his knees, and she also got on her knees. They started kissing violently, and Cat fell backwards onto the floor, Ned on top of her. He started grinding into her, rubbing against her clit. Cat was moaning, and bit his ear. He leaned down and started kissing her nipples.

“I guess we should move to the bed,” Cat murmured. Ned stood, and pulled her to standing, and she scooted onto the bed.

“You ready?” Ned asked.

Cat nodded.

Ned opened the box of condoms. He took one out, and took a while opening the seal. He was holding it, and breathing nervously, and she watched as he started to unroll it. He went limp.

“Fuck.”

Cat said, “here,” and pulled him onto the bed. She took the condom from him and dropped it on the floor by the bed.

“I’m just so fucking…”

“Shhhh.”

She moved her hand down and started rubbing him. He was still nervous and wouldn’t get hard.

“Does it feel good?” Cat asked a little nervously.

“Yeah…use your mouth?”

Ned leaned back and Cat straddled his leg, started licking him. She flicked her tongue against the tip of his cock and then put it all in her mouth. He got instantly rock hard. She kept going for a while until he pushed her back and said, “I don’t want to come like this. I want to come inside you.” Cat reached to the box of condoms and grabbed one. “Close your eyes.” She grabbed a new condom, opened the seal, but realized she didn’t know which way to put it on.

“Wait…help?”

Ned opened his eyes and showed her the right way, but he started to go limp again. Cat reached down to rub him until he was hard enough, and then she slid the condom on.

“Ok…” Cat whispered.

Ned opened his eyes again. Cat looked nervous.

“Here.” He flipped her onto her back and spread her legs. She closed her eyes and squeezed her face shut, but he said, “Look at me," and as he entered, and she held her breath, he looked deep in her eyes.

It didn’t hurt as much as she had expected. Ned kept asking her, “Does it feel good? Are you alright? Do you like it?” Until his own pleasure took the better of him, and he devolved into small grunts and moans. Cat liked the sensation, liked having it inside of her, enjoyed feeling him press into her and she shivered each time he thrust.

“Cat,” he finally said, “I can’t hold it much longer.”

“I’m not going to come,” Cat said.

“Can I finish you after?”

Cat moaned a yes.

Ned started thrusting faster and he pinned her arms down. His entire body tensed as he let out a deep moan. He held it for a few seconds, then collapsed on top of her. She was nearly suffocated.

“Um…”

“I know…I know…I’ll get off.” Ned rolled off and lied breathing heavily next to her, “Just give me a moment.”

Eventually he turned to her, and he wet his index and middle fingers in his mouth. Then he put them on her clit and started gently rubbing. She tensed and closed her eyes, feeling the pleasure until he made her come. After she was finished, Ned slid his hand under her back and nudged her to face him. She put her head on his chest. They stayed entangled in each other for a while, until they got up, made some hot chocolate, brushed their teeth and went right back to bed. They spent the whole day on Sunday together and showed up at the office together on Monday, blushing and sneaking glances that everyone noticed. 

Lena didn’t even have to ask. Ned & Cat became the biggest known secret in the office. Cat would even sometimes wear her hair down. When she spoke to her friends in Mississippi, Cat made it quite clear that she was planning on spending a long time in Fairbanks. A long time.

 

 


End file.
